Memories (Keep You Here)

AN: I don't know if I like where this is all going... Your thoughts?

Remy looked over at the girl in his passenger seat. Last night she had seemed so open, intoxicated by his scent and the wine. Tonight she was more weary, guarded. But that didn't make her any less beautiful. Her hair blew around her head as they wove through the New Orleans traffic.

God, her hair. It was just as blond as he remembered. He had been afraid that perhaps it wasn't really that shade of platinum, that he had just wanted it to be so badly, he made it that way in his head. It wouldn't be the first time Remy had done something like that.

After all, this search for her had been anything but easy. But now he had her, now she was in the car next to him, and he wasn't ever going to let her out of his sight again.

Nadya's green eyes turned to look at him, and he saw her throat contract as she swallowed.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You'll see,” he said mysteriously. Part of him was disappointed she wouldn't remember right away, wouldn't be able to see the sights passing them by and have that little click go off in her head. How many hours had they spent there together?

But of course, that was a foolish hope. Nadya had been buried for a long time, and her soul had only just woken up. He couldn't expect her to remember everything in a night's time. And things now looked so different than when they had walked these streets together all those years ago.

Those years. Just the thought of them could still send chills down Remy's spine. He remembered her face, tucked under the sunbonnet to keep her skin pale and delicate. He remembered the vibrant dresses she wore, remembered the feeling of the expensive material against his hot face when he buried his face in her lap.

Nadya... Her name had been burned into his mind, just as the vision of her had been burned behind his eyelids. So when he saw her sitting there at the bar, watching him, her legs crossed at the knee, it had been hard not to fall to his own knees, arms wide open.

It wasn't the way he pictured up. Nadya didn't seem to remember him. She had done everything he wanted willingly enough, and he could almost bet on the fact that she loved him, even this early. But it was frustrating.

He wanted all those old feelings of love. He wanted that adrenaline rush, wanted that feeling of paradise when she fell into his arms.

It was so hard to remember sometimes that the days of carriage wheels and horses, of those fancy dresses and sunbonnets, of his patched britches, of her smile and the way she smelled of sunlight were gone.

“Remy?” Nadya's voice came to him, shaken and unsure.

“Oui, cher?”

“You just ran a red light! We almost got creamed.”

“Ah'll try an' be more careful.”

“Okay,” she sank back into her seat, clearly still disturbed. It wasn't like she was in any sort of a position to argue with him, though. He was a vampire, and he would kill her whenever he wanted to. And she knew it.

She was a child, really. In spite of having her hair up, and wearing perfume, she was still a child. A baby in woman's clothing. Just as Nadya had been that last night he saw her all those years ago.

“You can't BE here, Remy.” she hissed as he approached her, heading into her house from sitting on the porch.

“Who he?” he jerked his head towards a man who was just entering the house.

“He's my fiancée!” Nadya said in a desperate voice.

“What ya mean, he your fiancée? We gonna get married, remember?” his hand, which had been gripping her upper arm, drifted down. The girl rubbed her arm and looked defeated. There in the dark corner of her porch, he saw her heart break etched on her face.

“You know I can't do that. I'm the eldest daughter. I have to marry well for my family.”

“And Ah ain't marryin' well?”

“Not by my father's standards.”

“Nadya!” he was horrified.

“Don't make this any harder on me, Remy! Don't you think this is killing me? I love you, and I will ALWAYS love you, but I have to do what's right for my family.”

“We can run away!” he said.

“No, we can't.” she put her forehead in her hands for a minute. “This was all fun when we were children, Remy, but now we're adults. And we're going to have to act like it. And part of that is understanding that we don't always get what we want.”

“But--,”

“If life were any different, you know I would be with you in a heartbeat! You know that I would do anything I possibly could to be with you. I am miserable without you, Remy. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone before.”

“Den run with me!”

“I can't! Remy... Maybe in another life time.” she kissed his lips gently. Before he could reach out for her again, she turned and rushed back into the ball inside her house. That huge old mansion that now lay in stinking ruins on the edges of the city. He owned the rights to it, and had half a mind to tear the thing down, it was a danger to everyone around.

It was harder than it sounded, though.

Remy had slipped away from her house that night, back towards the bayou. He had lain there for days, on hos bed, ignoring food or water or sunlight. Word reached their house a few days later that the fever had come back around town. Nadya was one of the first to go.

He had known that she would come back to him though. In another life time, she had said. And this was finally the other lifetime he was looking for. After all, had he not found her pure as snow sitting in that bar?

“Here,” Remy stopped the car.

“Where are we?” Nadya squinted in the darkness.

“De cemetery.” Remy grinned and stepped out of the car to open her door.